Fozzie Bear

Fozzie Bear is The Muppet Show's resident comedian. He's an orange-brown, fuzzy Muppet bear who tells bad jokes, usually punctuated with his catchphrase laugh, "Wocka wocka wocka!" Fozzie's best friend is Kermit the Frog, although they occasionally have differences of opinion.

Contents

During the first season of The Muppet Show, Fozzie's monologues usually consisted of Fozzie telling simple setup/punchline jokes, while being heckled by his mother's old friends, Statler and Waldorf. After the first season, most of his monologues relied on gimmicks such as telling jokes on roller skates. A common schtick in many episodes is that Fozzie would attempt to imitate the guest star's most famous act to attempt to emulate their success, only to comically fail completely at the attempt. For instance, Edgar Bergen inspired him to try ventriloquism while stage magician Doug Henning inadvertently convinced Fozzie to try his hand at being a magician.

In Jim Henson: The Works, Christopher Finch wrote: "One of the biggest problems [with the first season] was with Fozzie Bear. Fozzie was crucial to The Muppet Show because he was conceived as Frank Oz's main character, and the success of the show would depend to a significant degree on Frank having the opportunity to display the full range of his virtuoso performance and comedic skills.

"It was logical to have a comedian as a primary character on The Muppet Show, particularly once The Muppet Theatre had been established as its basic setting. And given the spirit of the Muppets, it was almost inevitable that he would be a bad comedian. The problem with Fozzie was that his bad jokes and failure to win over an audience provoked more embarrassment than sympathy. For instance in episode 122, Fozzie gets so fed up with the heckling that he demands everyone but true Fozzie fans leave the auditorium. As a result, the seats are left completely empty; even Fozzie's own cousin leaves; Fozzie departs the stage almost in tears.

"Jerry Juhl and Frank Oz gradually transformed Fozzie by building up the positive aspects of his personality. They allowed his perpetual optimism to offset his onstage failures until he became a more rounded character. Fozzie's virtues ultimately made his ineptness acceptable -- and even endearing. So successful was this metamorphosis that he became one of the most popular of all the Muppets."

As a kid, Fozzie was raised by his mom and dad, along with his baby brother Freddie. Fozzie grew up right next door to his best friend Kermit and often spent time with his grandpa. Even as a baby, Fozzie always had an interest in becoming a comedian.

Fozzie remarked at the 2009 D23 Expo that he understudied at the Country Bear Jamboree.

Fozzie became a stand-up comic at the El Sleezo Cafe, where Kermit invited him to come to Hollywood to become famous. Fozzie took his uncle's car, which was left to him while his uncle hibernated, and the pair set out for California. However, if Fozzie had never met Kermit, he would have ended up becoming a skilled pick-pocket (so good that he could pick the pocket of someone without pants).

Family

Fozzie's mother is Emily Bear. Fozzie has a cousin (who looks just like him) who appeared on The Muppet Show, but apparently he has no more respect for his relative's talent than anyone else. Fozzie also mentioned an uncle in The Muppet Movie.

Fozzie and Kermit

Since the early days of The Muppet Show, Fozzie has often interacted with Kermit. Fozzie got Kermit to reluctantly assist him for one of his best-known monologues, "Good Grief! The Comedian's a Bear!", and has also had quite a bit of interaction with Kermit backstage.

In episode 115, Fozzie constantly annoyed Kermit with a running gag, delivering a number of pun items, such as a "wire" and a "letter" for Kermit the Frog which turned out to be a clothes wire and the letter R, respectively.

In episode 114, Fozzie performed the supposedly famous "Banana Sketch." When Kermit confessed that he didn't know what "The Banana Sketch" was, the cast and guest star Sandy Duncan teased him for his ignorance.

Kermit and Fozzie have also frequently been paired together in countless movies, books, and specials. In The Muppet Movie, Fozzie was the first Muppet Kermit met on his journey. After Fozzie's unsuccessful comedy performance at the El Sleezo Cafe, Kermit invited Fozzie to come to Hollywood with him. The two friends sang the duet "Movin' Right Along" in the same film.

The young incarnations of Fozzie and Rowlf were also frequently paired together on Muppet Babies.

Fozzie's Showbiz Associates

Fozzie's agent, introduced in episode 122 of The Muppet Show, is Irving Bizarre, who is so short that his top hat covers most of his body. Fozzie also has a hired writer, Gags Beasley, who was first mentioned in Episode 114. Fozzie and Gags have a deal, whereby Fozzie pays his writer by the laugh.

According to Frank Oz, "[Fozzie] can't afford good joke writers, and he can't write good jokes himself."[1]

Other Talents

Fozzie's wardrobe consists of a tie and a brown porkpie hat, as seen in a photo posted to his Facebook account. While the tie is almost always white with pink polka-dots, he has changed this up on occasion: he wore black when meeting Becky's parents in "Pig Girls Don't Cry", and blue when attending Jay Leno's house party in "Hostile Makeover".

Although Fozzie's main job on The Muppet Show is to be the stand-up comedian, he takes on the occasional dramatic role and often assists backstage. He appears in sketches with guest stars Avery Schreiber and Nancy Walker, and he also appears in the recurring sketch Bear on Patrol.

In episode 201, Kermit let Fozzie help plan the show. His abilities in doing so earned him the title of "Honorary Hip Dude" from the Electric Mayhem band. Sadly, his planning also later lost him that title. Then, when Kermit becomes sick in episode 206, Fozzie is put in charge of hosting the show, which proves quite taxing for the bear.

Fozzie had also made an attempt to write for the show in episode 314 when he decided that the show needed a script. Unfortunately, Fozzie is either a bad speller or a bad typist (or both), as Kermit found it difficult to read the introductions that Fozzie wrote for him. Fozzie later admitted that he was a bad speller when he wrote the word "Muffets" as part of the title card for The Muppets Go to the Movies.

Later Appearances

Fozzie Bear only appeared in a handful of episodes of The Jim Henson Hour. One of his most notable appearances was in the Monster Telethon episode, in which Fozzie decided to give up comedy and become a weather bear. He went to the set of The Today Show to get some tips from the show's weatherman, Willard Scott, only to inadvertently lock Scott in a closet. With Scott locked in the closet, Fozzie came on-stage to report the weather, but had trouble reporting, and went back to comedy.

During the early 1990s, Fozzie appeared less frequently, usually in supporting roles and often wearing a wig. In The Muppet Christmas Carol, he made a cameo appearance as Scrooge's employer Fozziwig. Shortly afterward, he appeared in one sketch in Muppet Classic Theater, portraying the title character in The Emperor's New Clothes.

Back in the Spotlight

Fozzie became more of a primary character again in Muppets from Space. He was part of the main cast and was the one who drove the Electric Mayhem Bus. He also got to work with Kermit again, reviving a pairing which had been absent for most of the 1990s.

He was also a significant presence in It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, which was Eric Jacobson's first major performance as Fozzie. Unlike many of his 1990s appearances, in which Fozzie was written as a rather dim-witted bear, he was depicted as more intelligent again, with humor coming from his devotion to the other Muppets. When Pepe the King Prawn revealed that Rachel Bitterman changed the contract for payment of The Muppet Theatre, Fozzie chose to cancel his big Christmas monologue in order to hand-deliver a payment, in an attempt to save the theater. Later in the film, when Kermit saw what life would have been like if he hadn't been born, it was revealed that the Fozzie Bear of the Kermit-free world would've become a pickpocket.

Performing Fozzie

In the two pilot episodes of The Muppet Show Fozzie had a mechanism which allowed his cheeks to move. During the remainder of the first season, Fozzie was a bit plumper and had ears that wiggled. The later versions of the puppet had less control over the cheeks, but they still contained a mechanism that would alter their angle depending on the position of his lower jaw: an underbite results in a grin while pulling the jaw in produces a frown.

Fozzie was rebuilt for the second season of The Muppet Show; he was given a brighter orange hue, a tighter overall design, and a less "dopey" appearance. A special mechanism allowed his eyebrows to move, but the effect was barely noticeable, especially when he wore his hat. This eyebrow feature was removed when he was replaced with yet another puppet, just seven episodes into the second season.